The 115th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, Company C, is 'trained and ready to go'

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - With the Army Materiel Command band playing up on stage, the crowd clapping and clutching their tiny American flags, the members of the Alabama Army National Guard's 115th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, Company C, filed into the Grissom High School auditorium.

There were 99 of them, by the count of Brad Snipes, the first sergeant. The other nine or so were already in Fort Lewis, Wash., where the rest of Charlie Company will head before a year of duty in Afghanistan.

They were scheduled to fly out early this morning, just hours after their pre-deployment ceremony at Grissom High School on Saturday afternoon. The ceremony lasted for almost one hour, and was filled with encouragement and assurances to the soldiers and their families.

"Of this, I'm sure," said Jon Manders, the company commander. "We are trained and ready to go. We have the right leaders, and we have a family on which we can depend on while we are away from you."

And then he ended his speech this way: "You can be assured that we will come back safely to you."

For about a year, the members of 115th ESB have known that this was coming. Since then, they have been training with their unit, spending time with their families, making financial preparations with their employers and families, and readying themselves for what it will be like to be away from home for a year.

Most in Company C are from Huntsville. Others are from a detachment in Moulton. Some are from the Mobile area, even from Kentucky, among other places.

"It's tough," said Bryan Neely, a sergeant from Hayden in Blount County. "If I could sum it up in one word, it's tough being (away) from them. My wife will have to do more things, and the kids will have to adapt to that."

He has three children - ages 11, 14 and 17.

"Being away, you try to prepare your family," he said. 'You talk about finances, and if something happens, what to do and who to call. Get a plan."

And pray. Lots of praying, he said.

"(You) spend as much time as you can praying," he said. 'You spend time (with family) and talking. You're trying to get their minds off of it and then prepare for deployment. You try to have fun, try to relax."

Just then, Neely's son, Jadon, 11, approached his father.

"Daddy, there's a three-star general up there. Right there in front of us," Jadon said.

His father nodded, and the son walked back into the crowd in the moments before the ceremony.